Chelsea, a football club that nearly ceased to exist this year, lost 4-0 to Arsenal in a pre-season friendly and are now in crisis…
Despite the ownership change and ensuing upheaval, there was a positive feeling among the Chelsea fanbase as Todd Boehly was officially announced as the club’s ‘new custodian’.
It took a while for the transfer strategy to be worked out, but reports of greater input from Thomas Tuchel and the promise of £200m to spend on new recruits was more than enough to ease the concerns of a group of people who at one low point wondered whether they would even have a club to support.
And amid rumblings of discontent after a humbling, but ultimately trivial, 4-0 pre-season defeat to Arsenal, the fact that the club had to be granted a special license just four months ago to avoid ceasing all operations is probably worth remembering. To call this a crisis moment so shortly after returning from the brink of true catastrophe is utterly absurd.
Tuchel’s comments following the defeat to Arsenal have encouraged the sensationalists. He said the club had “an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players” at the end of last season and claimed that despite the addition of two such players in Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly, Chelsea are currently “not competitive”.
Having lost both Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, Chelsea definitely need a new centre-back. That looks unlikely to be Jules Kounde as saboteurs-in-chief Barcelona seem to have persuaded him to snub Stamford Bridge for the Nou Camp. It could be Presnel Kimpembe, it could be someone else.
From the outside looking in, further signings would be nice, but not absolutely necessary, unless either Cesar Azpilicueta or Marcos Alonso are coaxed to the dark side.
Chelsea’s target is not to win the Premier League, but to finish in the top four, having been comfortably the third best team in the Premier League by most metrics last season as well as the one that ultimately matters. Not only did they finish third, but also scored the third most goals (76), conceded the third fewest (33), had the third most possession (62.3%), created the third most chances (11.3 per 90mins), we could go on.
There is an insurmountable gap between Chelsea and the top two but also quite a significant one between Chelsea and the chasing pack.
Arsenal and Tottenham have strengthened this summer, but if Chelsea head into the new season having signed a £50m-plus…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…